Juston Fariello
Archaeologist
URS Corporation
8181 E. Tufts Ave.
Denver, Co. 80237
303-796-4623
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Sub-floor pits could also be used to hide stuff you don't want to be found.
I was involved in a site where a wood lined rectangle pit was located
underneath a building in Lo-Do Denver, buy the Pepsi Center. The building
was a saloon from the late 1880s until 1916, when Colorado adopted an
alcohol prohibition. After that, it was a soda parlor, owned and operated
by the same person who ran the saloon. The wooden pit was stuffed with
alcohol bottles dating to this 1916-1932 period. It is very likely that
this was a trap door trash pit where the speakeasy's trash could be
descreetly disposed of.